Love's Strange
by Poppy471
Summary: Love is strange and unpredictable, but it looks like Allison has finally found hers. T for strong language. (For once it is not rated M, mainly because Bender is behaving himself.)
1. Monday

Many thanks to my beta, ******The Wistful Bloom.**

**MONDAY**

Inhaling steam and the scent of soap, Allison Reynolds begins preparing for the dreaded Monday. All day yesterday she'd vacillated between hope and despair. It seemed like maybe she just might have some friends at last. And a boyfriend! But people make promises they don't keep...

Toweling off, she considers her hair. She normally lets it flop however it wants to flop. Will she do something different today? Because of her new friends? Because of Andrew Clark? She teeters, utterly undecided, then combs her hair with her fingers as usual. If they don't like her how she is, no amount of grooming will help that.

It is harder to hang on to that philosophy in front of her closet. She finally decides on a plain black t-shirt with an embroidered vest and baggy trousers, completed with her Converse shoes. Feeling a bit dressy, she wears plain black socks rather than multicolored striped ones. Black eyeliner applied as thickly as ever, she is ready for breakfast.

Her parents are at the glass dining table as usual, exchanging murmurs about the newspaper. They ignore her morning greeting. Sometimes one or the other will look up and say "Morning." But that doesn't happen often. Allison prepares her bowl of cornflakes with pixie stix rather than sugar and eats it in the darkened living room. The maid, Helena, always prepares Allison's lunch the day before, just before leaving, so Allison grabs her paper lunch bag. Helena has her own ideas about what teenage girls should eat, and that includes olive loaf and pimento cheese. It is Allison who tucks a baggie of Cap'n Crunch in with her usual pixie stix.

It's cold this morning and Allison is glad of her parka, although she doubts she'll need it this afternoon. She waits in the driveway, next to the Cadillac. If she doesn't get to the car before her parents, they are liable to leave her behind. Today she only waits two minutes. The next five minutes she swears are the longest of her life. Will he or won't he? Will they or won't they? Who will keep their promises?

The car pulls up and Allison exits. She faces the facade of Shermer High. The stairs are bustling with students. Swept up in the crowd, Allison mounts the steps, head down. Reaching the landing, she walks right into someone. She looks up to see Andrew Clark. She steps back a little and darts a quick look at his face. He looks uncertain, which makes her bolder. She meets his eye and gives him the smallest of smiles. He relaxes and gives her one of his own quirky smiles; her heart jumps.

"Claire said she and Bender are meeting at the back doors. You know, where all the waste- I mean, heavy metal guys hang out." Andy puts his arm around her shoulders and guides her into the school, as if... as if she were his girlfriend.

She hears Andy greet a few people but her head is down so she doesn't know what the other students' reactions are. But she does hear Andy mutter "Bonehead," once. Finally they reach the back doors. Allison looks up just in time to see Claire and Bender entering, flanked by two other guys dressed much like Bender, in jean jackets and boots. They seem to be an honor guard. Bender looks as proud as she's ever seen him.

Andy nods at the guys and says to one, "Hey Brody."

Meanwhile Allison is timidly meeting Claire's uncertain smile. They both say "Hi," at the same time, then Claire adds, "We're all here."

"No, we're not, but here comes Brian. I told him we were meeting you guys here." Trust Andy to remember Brian. Brian's membership in the group had slipped the minds of all but Andy's.

Brian's appearance relieves everyone of the awkward silence that had followed. Brian is panting as if he's run all the way from the front of the school. Which, apparently, he has.

"I thought I would miss you guys, I didn't know my watch was slow and then Lester told me it was wrong, so I came as quickly as I could, and I am so glad you guys are still here." He looks around as if the gravity of the moment has just dawned on him. Bender raises his hand and, to Allison's surprise, Brian and Bender go through a complicated hand shake that ends with them bumping fists. Andy gently punches Brian on the arm, and Allison and Claire smile.

The bell rings just then. Over the hubbub of students shouting and talking, Bender says, "Meet up in the caf for lunch?" Everyone agrees.

To her complete amazement, Andy walks Allison right up to her locker, arm tight around her. She is able to look up now, and sees Andy receiving some odd looks. He is oblivious or is ignoring them, hailing a few other jocks, but otherwise absorbed in her, in Allison Reynolds. After she gathers her books for the day, Andy gives her a kiss on the cheek and they part for homeroom.

She is shell-shocked with pleasure, noticing very little of her surroundings and missing all of the announcements. She dreamily stares off for the next few minutes, surprised when the bell summons her to French class, her most loathed subject. She makes her way through the crowded halls to the proper room, drifts to the last seat in back and begins erecting her usual fortress of books and purse. Someone slides into the seat next to hers, an unheard-of event. She looks through her curtain of hair to see Bender slapping down a notebook and textbook.

Surprise causes Allison to part her hair and look directly at him.

"Take a picture, it'll last longer," is his response to her stare. Another smile creeps onto her face. This has been a morning full of more smiles than her week usually contains.

"Alright, Al, where's your homework? I didn't do mine. I need the answers."

Allison meeps at this demand. She begins flipping through her notebook and mutters, "I didn't do mine either."

"Had something else on your mind? I sure as hell did. The princess and sporto came through, though." He lapses into an uncharacteristic silence. Allison glances over. He isn't exactly starry-eyed, but he's about as spacey as she's ever seen him.

"Bonjour, étudiants." Madame Katz begins the daily torture that is French.

* * *

Andy is at her locker when lunch time comes, ready to escort her to the caf. She feels like a... well, like a princess, as stupid as that sounds. This must be the way Claire feels all the time.

She revises her opinion when they reach the table Bender has claimed for them. Claire is in tears. Bender looks pissed as hell, and Brian positively alarmed. Obviously, the guys have no idea what to do with a crying girl. Andy is equally baffled. Allison sits next to her and asks in a low voice, "Are your friends being assholes?"

"What did I ever do to them? How can they be so mean?"

"They're not really your friends, if they care about Bender. Friends accept each other as-is, no conditions."

"I thought Jean at least would understand. She called me... a... a slut." More tears.

Allison hears Bender mutter, "Slut my ass."

"C'mon Claire, you're better than them. They were always like that, you just didn't know it. Now you know."

It takes quite a bit more pep talk to cheer Claire up. Focused on Claire, Allison is only vaguely aware of Andy talking Bender down from some kind of violence. She is relieved to see him looking more calm when she can finally turn her attention away from Claire.

It's a subdued lunch period for all. When she and Andy reach her locker, Andy says, "I thought for sure Bender was going to deck Chad when he walked by. Everyone has decided to call her a slut. Thank god Brian was there to help me hold him."

Allison gives him a look and somehow Andy knows her unspoken question.

"Yeah, they're being assholes to me too, except the wrestlers. Who cares? Buncha superficial idiots."

He looks like he really means that. He must, because he pulls her closer for a real kiss, right there, in front of everyone.

* * *

That kiss sends her into a whirl of distracted delight that lasts all day. Andy is at her locker again when the last bell rings. He's going to walk her home. A boy is going to walk her home!

They talk about Claire most of the way. The richie kids are being about as horrible as Andy has ever seen them.

"I knew some of the girls were envious of Claire's popularity, but her best friend turned on her. Claire's a wreck. It's hard when so many people gang up on you."

"What about you, Andy? Are they ganging up on you?"

"Chad and Dennis and all of them? Hell no, they know I'd have them flat on the floor in seconds. And the guys from the team are behind me. As far as violence goes, I'm more worried about Bender. He's going to end up starting a rumble. All his friends are pissed too."

"A rumble?"

"Richies against the metal guys. All the metal guys are insulted on behalf of Claire. An insult to Bender is an insult to all of them. They're really tight. I had no idea they would all feel that way. It's a big mess."

Allison inwardly sighs. Trust guys to boil it all down to violence. But maybe that's better than girls, with their catty, back-stabbing ways. Screw it, they're all fucked up. She's glad she doesn't have any friends to worry about.

They've arrived at Allison's house and Andy walks her right up onto her front porch. She wonders why until he kisses her again, in the shadowy entry way. Just as she is really getting into things, Andy pulls away, a goofy look on his face.

"Bye, Allison. I'll see you tomorrow."


	2. Brian Saves the Day

As always, thank you to my beta,** The Wistful Bloom. **

**BRIAN SAVES THE DAY**

Andy is true to his word and meets Allison at the front of the school, walks her to her locker and then to homeroom. She is having trouble getting used to being noticed. Before Andy, before the breakfast club, people mainly ignored her. It hurts when her parents ignore her, but going unnoticed in high school is maybe not the worst thing in the world. The guys from the wrestling team are pretty friendly and smile, but the cheerleaders all look daggers at her. She is in a more secure position than Claire. Bender cannot influence the rich girls the way that Andy can, via the wrestling team. The cheerleaders still want to go out with the guys from the wrestling team, so they have to restrain themselves. But there is no check on the girls in Claire's situation.

Claire fills her in on this during one of their late-night marathon telephone sessions. Because Allison is now Claire's best friend and that entails many phone calls. Allison never knew there was so much to be said about school and boyfriends and cliques and parents.

Claire's parents aren't too happy about Bender. Her father is taking it better. He's obviously hoping if she gets no reaction from him, she will grow bored with her rebellion quickly. Her mother, on the other hand, has taken away all her credit cards as punishment. This is more upsetting to Claire than Allison would have felt herself and she has a hard time understanding Claire's distraught condition over this punishment. Allison buys most of her own clothes at thrift stores. She can buy a new outfit for $5 and a whole wardrobe for $20. But she does her best to console the bereft Claire. They are friends, after all.

* * *

Thursday just before lunch is when she hears about it. Sheila Lyon is the one she overhears. The minute Allison understands what Sheila is talking about, she makes a beeline for Andy's locker.

"Bender's going to do it, Andy. There's going to be a fight. Tomorrow night at the river. I heard Sheila-"

"Yeah I know," Andy says with great frustration. "I was hoping you and Claire wouldn't hear about it."

"Of course we'll hear about it. The whole school knows. Why shouldn't Claire and I know?"

"Because," he says, "I know you girls will try to stop it. That's just not possible anymore, and you could get hurt trying."

"I hate it when you try to protect me, Andy." She really does hate it. She's been taking care of herself all these years without help. "And it's really obvious it can't be stopped. Anyone could see that."

As it turns out, Claire doesn't see that.

"Get off my back," Bender growls when Claire tries to reason with him during lunch. "It's too late. There's no stopping this. If only Ron had kept his mouth shut."

Ron, it turned out, heard Chad referring to Claire as "the slut" and took offense at the remark; he started swinging at Chad. Bystanders had broken up the fight, but the glove had been thrown down. Neither side would lose face by ignoring the incident or trying to make peace. Chad refused to apologize and Ron refused to back down.

"Don't blame Ron," Andy says. "Chad has been trying to provoke this for a while now. If it hadn't been Ron, it would have been someone else. We'll just have to try to make it as fair as possible. Henry Gravois says we can count on the basketball team to help us referee."

"I don't know why I can't take care of Chad myself," Bender says.

"Look, we don't want this getting any bigger than it already is. Ron and Chad is bad enough. We don't need a full out gang war."

Bender grumbles to himself, "Fuckin' richies."

Brian, being a long-sighted thinker, asks, "Will this fight stop the root of the problem? People will be mad no matter who wins the fight and the animosity will be that much worse. People will want revenge."

"You're right, but what can we do other than make sure it's a fair fight?" Andy wants to know.

"The wrestling team is doing well this year, isn't it?" Brian inquires.

"What the hell does that have to do with anything?" Andy starts stabbing the chicken breast in front of him.

"Well, everyone wants to be state champ, right? What if you guys deliberately lost and missed state champ?"

The Shermer High wrestling team is the major team that always performs well and gains the school accolades. They are more important than the basketball and football teams put together, as far as garnering trophies.

"Dork, that's a very interesting idea," Bender says, slow and thoughtful.

"What idea? Why would we want to lose?" Andy wants to know.

"Tell the richies you'll lose if Chad doesn't accept a truce," Brian explains. "No one but Chad and Dennis need to know. Dennis has some sense. He wants this about as much as you do, Andy."

"Andy, you explain things to Dennis. He'll work on Chad. It's our only hope to keep this from getting totally out of control." Bender says. "It's a good thing we have such a smart guy hanging out with us."

Brian blushes. Bender's comment is devoid of sarcasm for once, and a compliment from Bender is nigh unheard of.

* * *

The negotiation begins directly after lunch. Andy cuts class and gets Dennis to meet him behind the gym.

The breakfast club gathers in the courtyard after the last bell, waiting to see what Andy has to report.

"It's done. Dennis promises Chad will pretend to have a broken nose if Ron agrees to get knocked out."

Bender looks furious, but Andy continues, "You have to get Ron to agree. You have to. It's the only way to end this."

Bender gives Andy a dark look but says, "I'll do it. If Ron won't agree, I'll knock him out myself."

* * *

Friday is unpleasant for all. After a morning of open jeering and loud muttering every time Claire walks down the hall, Allison insists Claire cut school and come to her house for the remainder of the day. They can await news at Claire's house that night, with Brian.

Claire's parents, approving of a night spent at home watching Blockbuster movies, order pizza for everyone and promise ice cream afterward. Claire is a bit embarrassed but Allison thinks having parents who even notice you exist is pretty cool.

The three of them try not to fret. Bender promised to report as soon as it is over and to meet them at the ice cream shop, if it's not too late. Allison chose the movie, and the other two wished they hadn't delegated the task to her because she rented 'This Is Spinal Tap,' which was 'just too gross', according to Claire.

"Couldn't you have gotten 'Risky Business' or 'The Big Chill'? Or something normal?"

"But they looked boring."

Claire rolls her eyes.

After Brian and Claire have had enough Spinal Tap, they let Brian flip through channels, looking for something good. They finally decide on a police show.

At nine, Claire's father pokes his head in the den and hands her the cordless phone. It's Bender. The other two watch her face as she listens. She doesn't look happy when she hangs up, but quickly assures them everything went off as planned. Both sides felt they had won, and Chad, Dennis, Andy, Bender and Ron are all publicly proclaiming their satisfaction with the outcome.

Claire announces to her parents they are ready for ice cream and desire a ride to the ice cream shop. They see Andy's father's Bronco parked out front and tell Claire's father they won't be needing a ride home.

"Back by midnight, young lady," says her father as he accepts her kiss on the cheek.

They meet the guys inside, with Ron. Ron wants to give a blow-by-blow description of the fight, but Andy sees Claire's face and stops him. Ron is sporting a split lip and a bruised cheek and looks like he feels like a hero. And, Allison supposes, he will be seen that way, having gone up against Chad.

"Will people stop calling Claire names?" asks Brian, cutting to the heart of the matter quickly.

"I don't think we can stop that, but they'll stop saying them so loud," Andy says. "It should be better for you, Claire."

"Oh, stop the bullshit, Andy. This fight wasn't about me. You're a bunch of cavemen," Claire says with disgust. Allison finds that she agrees with Claire.


	3. Good Girls and Little Kisses

Let me extend a big thank you to **The Wistful Bloom** for her hard work.

**GOOD GIRLS AND LITTLE KISSES**

As much as Allison enjoys Andy's attentions and Claire's companionship, she finds herself spending more time after school with Brian and Bender. They are both failing Madame Katz's class and Brian is helping them out as he is in honors French. It's mainly rote memorization, which technically Bender and Allison could do on their own, but it is Brian who keeps them focused and motivated. They all go to the library and while Brian quizzes them, Andy and Claire do their other assignments at the next table over.

The next Wednesday Andy walks Allison home from the library as usual. Her parents' cars are both gone, so she ventures to ask Andy, "You want to come in for a coke?"

Settled on the den sofa, college radio station playing softly, they discuss the outcome of the fight. Allison is glad things were resolved but is uninterested in all the resulting cock crowing and back patting going on with the metal guys and the wrestling team. Andy notices her flagging attention and takes her hand. This is more like it, the reason she invited him in. She's tired of furtive kisses in semi-public places. She gives Andy one of the looks she knows he can't resist and she is not disappointed.

As they get involved in their kiss, Allison presses herself against Andy, pulls him closer. Long before she is ready to stop, Andy separates himself from her and says, "I'd better be going, Allison."

Her frustration is so extreme she kicks the umbrella stand. Why, why, WHY does he stop just when things get interesting?

* * *

Bender explains this during their next French class. She doesn't know how it comes about, but she finds herself confessing her frustration to Bender of all people. And he has the information she was missing.

"He's treating you like a good girl. You're not supposed to want more than a little kiss. Claire is driving me crazy too. It's ridiculous. I know what she wants, she knows what she wants, but she pulls me up short every time, acting shocked."

Allison suddenly realizes they are discussing their sex lives and maybe this isn't a good idea. Andy wouldn't like Bender knowing how far they go. Madame Katz fortuitously chooses this time to call on Bender, who is lost as usual. Allison resolves to keep these thoughts to herself from now on. She is glad for the information, though.

* * *

Meanwhile, Claire is taxing Allison's patience. Her mother has still not relented. Claire hasn't gone shopping since that day she cut school, weeks ago.

"So save your allowance. You'll have enough pretty quickly. Your dad is generous with your allowance. You get more than I do."

"Urgh. Allison, you don't understand. I want good clothes, not something from K Mart. I can't afford Ralph Lauren. I can't even afford Guess jeans and Mia flats. As if!"

Allison doesn't know what these names mean but gets the picture. But there appears to be nothing to be done about the situation. What Claire wants Allison to do about this, Allison doesn't know. She patiently listens, but her mind wanders to the picture she's doing, a group portrait of the breakfast club.

* * *

A week later, on a Tuesday, Allison decides it is time to try to disabuse Andy of this "good girl" idea he has. She invites him in, this time to look at her group portrait.

"Allison, this is amazing," Andy says.

She can't help but be flattered, but it doesn't distract her from her mission. They are seated on the edge of her bed, the large sketch book open across both of their laps. She moves closer and puts her hand on his forearm. He looks up from the sketch book and she gently takes it away from him.

"We're done with that," she says in a low voice.

They melt into a delicious kiss, but this time when Andy pulls away, she says, "No, Andy. Stay. Don't go."

He looks around, apparently alarmed. "I'd... I'd really better go, Ally. I don't want to... Umm, I really need to get going."

When he withdraws, she keeps his hand in hers, refusing to let go. She pulls him back onto the bed.

"I'm not a good girl, Andy. You don't have to treat me like one."

She takes the look on his face for surprise. Only when he speaks does she realize her mistake.

"Allison! What are you, some kind of... loose girl? Of course I have to treat you with respect. You don't know what you're saying."

"I do know what I'm saying, Andy. I want more than this. You're driving me crazy, always leaving in the middle of things."

"You sound like a guy. What's wrong with you, Allison?" He jumps up.

"Girls are just like guys! That's why I sound like a guy! I don't pretend to be girly. So what. What's wrong with going a little further?" She stamps her foot in frustration.

"It's not right, Allison."

"Don't tell me you've never gotten hot and heavy with a girl before," she yells, looking at him defiantly.

"Well, yeah, but that was different. I didn't really care about them. I care about you."

She blows her bangs out of her face."You people have it all backwards! Caring about someone, that's a reason to do it, not a reason to not do it!"

Andy looks aghast. "You want to have sex?"

"No!" Allison is practically crying with frustration. "I just want more than little kisses. Like this!"

She grabs his arm, pulls him against her body, kisses him hard. He kisses her back, with a passion she's never felt from him. She tries to pull him closer, but suddenly he is yanking himself out of her grasp.

"We can't do this!" He snatches up his book bag and flees her room. She follows, only to see him banging out the front door. She goes to the doorway and watches him as he jogs down the street.


	4. In Your Eye

Thank you,** The Wistful Bloom!**

**IN YOUR EYE**

Andy isn't waiting for her in front of the school Wednesday morning. He doesn't meet her at her locker before homeroom. She doesn't see him until lunch time, and then only across the caf, where he is sitting with the jocks for the first time since detention.

She can't eat. She doesn't even bother constructing her cereal sandwich, just glumly stares at the paper bag. Claire and Brian are in the library, going over Molière before Claire's European history exam. Only Bender is at the usually crowded table. He looks up from his burger.

"You and Andy fighting?"

"I don't know, Bender. He won't even talk to me."

Bender swallows his last bite of burger and looks at the wilting salad the cafeteria provided.

"I'm done here. Let's go burn one behind the gym."

Allison doesn't know what else she can do about Andy, so she tosses her lunch bag into her purse and nods to Bender. Maybe he can enlighten her on the workings of angry males. Bender buses his tray and they make their way to the back doors leading to the playing fields. Just by the door, Allison slips in a puddle of milkshake. Bender grabs her before she falls and they push through the double doors together.

Sitting on the steps to the rear entrance of the gym, Bender gets out a baggie of weed and rolls a joint. He lights it and offers it to Allison, but she shakes her head.

"Spill it, Al. What's up?"

"You know how you told me about the good girl thing?" Allison begins. "Well, yesterday..."

Allison goes on to tell Bender every detail of her encounter with Andy the day before.

"It's not fair, Bender. Guys can want what they want, but girls have to pretend. I'm so mad with Andy. I didn't know he was a sexist pig."

"You did sort of hit him over the head with a big idea all at once. Let him think about it. He might come around."

"Do you think so?" Allison asks.

"Well, it's worth a try."

"But he won't talk to me!" She despairs again.

"He's been avoiding you, yeah, but have you tried going up to him and asking him to talk?"

"No..." She has to admit she gave up pretty quickly.

The wind, already pretty strong, blows right into their secluded corner, stirring up bits of leaves and grit.

"Ow!" Allison puts her hand up to her eyes.

"What's wrong?"

"I got something in my eye." She rolls her eyes around, carefully wipes at the offending speck of dirt. "Damn, I can't get it."

Bender leans forward and says, "Look up." Alison widens her eyes so Bender can see better. He puts one hand on her cheek and says, "Turn this way, into the light."

She does as instructed and he says, "Aha! I see it." Gingerly he brushes at the fleck of dirt with the corner of his bandana. "OK, it's gone."

Allison pulls back, blinking rapidly, feeling no pain. Her eyes water and she wipes at the tears.

"Thank you, Bender."

"No problem." Bender tucks the handy bandanna back into the inner pocket of his jean jacket.

"So you think I should try to catch Andy and talk to him?"

"It's the only way to work it out. Go now, before lunch is over."

* * *

Allison puts her head down to avoid more grit in her eyes and rushes back to the cafeteria. When she scans the jock table, Andy isn't there. The bell rings and she doesn't have time to check his locker, but she will definitely try to catch him after the last class.

* * *

Classes pass slowly but finally the last bell rings and Allison runs straight to Andy's locker. She is in luck. He is just fastening his padlock when she hurries up to him. But when he turns and looks at her, she doesn't know what to say. She opens her mouth, then shuts it.

"What do you want?" Andy's voice is cold with anger.

"Andy, please..." She doesn't know what she wants. "Please talk to me. Don't just ignore me."

"I think you have better things to do with your time than talk to me."

"What do you mean? I wanted to talk to you all day. You were avoiding me!"

"I saw you two." This is an accusation, but of what she doesn't know. She looks at his face, closed and hard.

"You saw...?"

"I saw you and Bender kissing. Behind the gym. Go ahead, deny it!"

"Kissing Bender? What-"

Andy interrupts her. "He was all over you in the cafeteria and I saw you kissing him."

Now she realizes what happened. Her eye, getting that dirt out of her eye had looked like something else.

"No, Andy, I had something in my eye, he was helping me..." Her voice trails off as she sees he isn't even listening.

"I thought you were special, Allison, but first you try to seduce me and now you're kissing some other guy. You're right, you're not a good girl. They got it wrong, calling Claire a slut." He turns and starts walking away.

He has just called her a slut.

"Fuck you, Andrew Clark, you pig!" She starts crying and kicks the row of lockers so hard it hurts her foot. Andy stiffly continues down the hallway without looking back.

* * *

Allison is cleaning her room. The junk she's allowed to accumulate over the course of months is randomly piled up. She's cleaning because she can't settle down to anything more focused. Not that she is even focusing enough to clean. This is the third time she's flipped through an old sketch book and she still doesn't know where to put it.

The phone rings.

Snatching it up she breathlessly says, "Andy?"

"No, it's me, Bender."

"Oh." All interest drops from her voice.

"I'm happy to talk to you too." Bender's sarcasm has an unusual bite to it.

"What's wrong Bender?" Is Bender mad at her too?

"Apparently, we've been kissing behind the gym. That's what Claire tells me. What's going on?"

"Oh no! Oh, Bender, I'm so sorry. It's Andy."

"Great, you told Andy we were kissing so... what.. you could make him jealous or something?"

"No! Andy saw you taking that dirt from my eye. He thought he saw us kissing."

"Oh." She can practically hear the gears turning in his brain. "Well, that wasn't your fault."

"Of course it wasn't my fault. Why is everything suddenly my fault?" She's too mad to cry.

"Andy won't believe you?"

"Bender, he called me a slut. He wouldn't listen to me and then he called me a slut."

"Oh boy." She hears a gust of breath from his end of the line. "No, it's not your fault, it's mine. I never should have told you about that good girl thing."

"But it's the way he thinks. You're right. You were just telling me the truth."

"Look, I'll talk to Claire, you talk to Andy, we'll sort this out."

* * *

Allison is too upset to sleep. She thrashes about, going from one position to another, finding no rest, only Andy saying over and over, "They got it wrong, calling Claire a slut." The word slut echoes through her mind even when she finally falls asleep at two.

The alarm wakes her feeling unbearably tired. Her eyes are like a desert, dry, gritty and hot. It takes terrible effort to drag herself from bed, force her limbs into garments.

She leaves for school early, to arrive before Andy, to wait by his locker.

He finds her sitting with her back against his locker. She slides into a standing position, blocking his way.

"I don't want to hear it. Move." His voice is just as hard and unbending as yesterday.

"You're going to listen to me, Andrew Clark. You never gave me a chance to say anything yesterday."

He looks mutinous, but she knows he won't physically move her.

"As I said yesterday, I got something in my eye. Bender leaned close to me to get it out with his bandana. That's all. Period. No kissing."

"Yeah, yeah, tell that to someone who doesn't know better. You both lie. You admitted it, you're a compulsive liar. And Bender is no better."

"You are the only person who has ever kissed me. Ever." Her eyes water but she looks away, blinking back the tears. She refuses to cry in front of him. When she looks back, he is staring at a spot just above her left shoulder, refusing to make eye contact.

"Move. Before I call security."

"I am not a slut." She says this with great dignity, then turns and slowly walks away, spine straight, unbent by his nasty accusations and words.

* * *

The caf is too much for her to cope with, so during lunch she retreats to a little known vestibule in the rear of the auditorium, a favorite pre-detention haunt. She can go back to being invisible. She won't be here anymore, she'll go back to her fantasy world.

But she can't remember what she fantasized about and she can't ignore the jeering of the cheerleaders, finally released from the restraint imposed by the wrestling team. The guys from the team look at her with loathing too. She's glad at least she doesn't have classes with anyone from the breakfast club. Except... Wait... Where was Bender this morning in French? Maybe he hates her too.

School ends after an eternity of misery. She wishes she had her parka hood to pull about her face, to hide, to block her view of what she doesn't want to see. But it's warm, almost the end of the school year. Almost the end of school... She'll be glad to escape this hell. Maybe by next year, she will be forgotten.


	5. Lunch

Thank you,** The Wistful Bloom**, for all of your help.

**LUNCH**

The next morning she drags herself from homeroom to French. Her head is down, in a posture habitual before the breakfast club. That's why she doesn't see Bender until she trips over his extended foot.

"Hey, Al."

She looks up to see Bender with a huge black eye.

She drops her books on her desk and gasps, "Bender, what happened?"

He gives her a lopsided grin and says, "A gift from your boyfriend."

"_Ex_ boyfriend," she corrects him. "What happened?"

"Andy didn't believe me either. We're both liars."

"Does Claire believe you?"

"She says she doesn't know what to believe." Bender shrugs. "Fifty-fifty, she could go one way or the other. Doesn't matter. We're done."

"You guys broke up?"

"I don't want to be with someone who has so little faith in me."

"Oh no," Allison moans. "It's because of me. If I hadn't..."

"Hadn't what? You were right the first time, it's not your fault. If brain damaged sporto doesn't appreciate what he has, if he buys that 'good girl' shit, he deserves what he gets and all of this is his fault." Bender seems to think for a moment. "I was getting sick of Claire's 'good girl' routine anyway."

Allison looks at him, surprised.

"Yeah, it's not just sex. She gets shocked so easily. She got mad when I called Sheila Lyon a cunt."

Giggles burst out of Allison before she can cover her mouth. Sheila Lyon is the leader of the cheering team.

"See? I tell it like it is, you laugh; Claire has a fit." Bender leans back in his seat. "She was always on me about doobage too. It was getting to be too much." Putting his feet up on another chair, he goes on, "I don't know what Cherry was thinking when she started all of this."

"Me and Andy, it was going great until I got that good girl idea."

"Man, I feel bad about that. That was the biggest mistake, telling you that."

"No, you were just telling the truth. Andy can't see past the stereotypes. He can't think for himself."

Madame Katz enters and says, "Bonjour, étudiants."

Before Madame Katz begins, Bender quickly murmurs, "Hey, don't sit by yourself during lunch. Come out to the back parking lot with me."

* * *

Not feeling brave enough to go alone to the parking lot, Allison waits for Bender by the back doors. He comes up swiftly, a dark look on his face.

"C'mon, let's get out of here." He all but pushes her out the door. She looks back and sees part of the wrestling team from the corner of her eye.

His expression lightens as they approach the group of guys standing around smoking cigarettes. "You can meet the guys now. They'll like you."

Once separated out into individuals they are not as numerous as they seem from a distance. It is only six guys, plus Bender. She remembers the one named Brody, and Ron.

"This is Allison, who I was telling you about." Bender puts his arm around her shoulder and says, "She's cool. She agrees Sheila Lyon is a cunt."

The guys laugh. "Got that right," a blonde haired guy says. He has boots like Bender's and a torn black t-shirt that says "Suicidal Tendencies." He's drinking a Pepsi. Food does not seem to be a major part of lunch out here.

Bender names each guy in turn: Sean, Brody, Ron, Tree, Neil and Gary. She wants to know how someone gets the name "Tree" but is too shy to ask. They all look friendly. Bender had said, "Allison, who I was telling you about." So they know something about her. She only knows from detention that Bender is fiercely devoted to his friends.

Bender escorts her to the front of the ancient Ford they are gathered around. He boosts himself onto the hood and gestures her to join him. The hood is big enough for a picnic.

"I guess there's nothing we can do, is there?" Allison asks.

"Not that I can see. If Andrew doesn't want to believe you, he just won't believe you. Nothing you can do about terminal ignorance."

* * *

Allison excuses herself before lunch is over and heads for the girl's bathroom on the first floor. When she exits her stall she sees none other than Claire Standish, applying lipstick in the mirror. Claire turns when she sees Allison behind her.

"Are you happy now? Spending lunch with someone else's boyfriend?" Claire stabs her with a dirty look.

"He's not your boyfriend anymore. And who do you expect me to have lunch with? You think I should go back to hiding in corners by myself?"

"We'd still be together if it weren't for you."

"Would you? Maybe if you'd been a bit more confident about your boyfriend's ability to tell the truth and stay faithful, you guys wouldn't have broken up." Allison hoists her bag and leaves Claire behind, lipstick in hand.

* * *

Allison doesn't see much of Andy and Claire the rest of the school year. She never goes to the cafeteria, where Andy and Claire eat lunch together with the wrestling team. Bender breaking up with Claire has partially rehabilitated her socially and Andy's athletic influence helps too.

Instead, Allison marches past the caf entrance and out the back doors to the parking lot. She's found that she can use the hood of Tree's car to construct her sandwiches of Cap'n Crunch cereal and pixie stix. She fits in pretty well with the guys. They don't mind her odd ways and she doesn't mind their earthy jokes and foul language and pot smoking habits.

It is only a few weeks until the end of school. Without Brian to help them out with French, Bender and Allison fall back into their poor study habits. Brian got shafted by the tumultuous double break up too. Claire and Andy, securely back in their well worn channels of stereotypes, aren't interested in inviting a dweeb to come sit with them at the wrestling team's table. Bender invites him out back a couple of times, but Brian always politely declines. Allison suspects this is because he thinks Bender is kidding. Bender has an unfortunate way of being sarcastic at all the wrong times. Whatever his reasons, Brian is back to his geek table lunches, not there to hound Allison and Bender into studying.

And three days before the end of term, Allison and Bender reap the fruits of their labor by both receiving failing grades on their French exams. That means they both fail the class for the year. And that means summer school.


	6. Summer School

Let me give** The Wistful Bloom **the recognition she deserves with a resounding "thank you."

**SUMMER SCHOOL**

Summer school isn't at Shermer High. It is on the campus of a small private school. There is a sleepy, deserted atmosphere as only five of the fifteen classrooms are in use. Allison arrives a bit early and is on the look out for Bender in the courtyard. She is surprised when Brian, not Bender comes through the archway. She stands up and waves, on tip-toe. He catches her signal and detours to greet her.

"Brian, what are you doing here? You didn't fail anything, did you? Was it shop?" Allison asks.

"No, they have an advanced calculus class every summer. I've finally completed the prerequisites and been accepted. It's hard to get into. Why are you here?"

"Bender and I failed French."

"Both of you? Oh no. I was afraid of that. You guys need to-"

"Yes, I know we should have studied more. Without you..." Allison trails off, distracted by a new trickle of students entering the courtyard. No Bender. Oh, but there's Brody! She gives another energetic wave.

When Brody approaches, Allison makes introductions. For some reason, Brody also goes through a complicated handshake with Brian. How do they know Brian knows how to do it? It must be a guy thing.

"Yeah, man, Bender told us about you. How funny you were in detention. Why didn't you ever come out to the parking lot to hang?"

Brian mumbles something about "didn't want to disturb..."

"See, I told you Bender really wanted you to come out." Allison is glad Brody has vindicated her.

Brody, it turns out, failed geometry.

"And you're here for that high power math thing?" Brody asks Brian. "Maybe you could help me sometime, if I don't understand."

Just then the bell rings and they all turn towards the cafeteria, where they will have orientation.

Bender slides into a seat next to Allison, five minutes late.

The teacher at the front of the room giving instructions says, "John Bender, is that correct? That will be after school detention for tardiness."

Bender looks quite happy, despite racking up a detention so soon into the semester.

When they shuffle off to their assigned classrooms, Bender and Allison take up their usual positions in the back row. French is a torture, as expected, but when they finish at noon Brody and Brian are there to talk to. Allison decides to join Bender for detention, which is much less interesting than the breakfast club detention they'd had in the spring, but Bender finds openings for numerous snide comments and lewd jokes, whispered for Allison's benefit.

Allison finds it comforting to have Bender with her in her class. She also finds that being with him increases her social acceptability. With so many students from other schools, Allison feels like she can be a new person, reinvented without all the Shermer High baggage. This new person holds her head up and makes eye contact, laughs and even talks. Not a whole lot, but she is no longer the mute wreck she was in detention.

With classes ending at noon, the small group, Bender, Brody, Brian and Allison, are free to spend their afternoons as they see fit. They start going to a little diner called Friendly House that has really good french fries and milkshakes. Then Brian usually drags them off to study at the library. Despite her hatred of the French language, Allison now finds she actually can learn it and she masters it enough to earn Bs and Cs. Even Bender is now a solid C student, under Brian's tutelage.

* * *

One beautiful day the group is walking to the library from Friendly House. After enjoying a particularly lewd joke of Bender's that involves a naked blonde, a two foot salami and a poodle, Brody says to Allison, "Why are you so cool for a girl?"

Allison is puzzled and has no answer, but Bender immediately says, "Because she's not a good girl or a slut or anything else, she's just Allison."

"True," Brody says. "You don't believe in all that stuff, jocks and richies and wastoids, do you?"

She's never thought about it before, but being a social outcast her entire high school career means she's never had any investment in stereotypes and cliques. She shrugs.

"That's a really good way to be," Brody says.

"Allison's the best," Bender says and puts his arm around her shoulder and gives her a squeeze that ends in a head lock. Allison quickly gets Bender to release her with a twist and a strategic palm to his face.

"Andy did teach you something!"

"Just that, basically. I asked him to teach me more, but he said he'd take care of me, I didn't need to know," Allison explains.

"Typical guy thing to say. I think it's cool you want to know wrestling moves." Bender's admiration seems to increase. He pulls her into a rough one-armed hug and she has to grab his shirt to stay on her feet, then finds herself hugging him to keep her balance.

They both seem to realize this at the same time and release each other self consciously. Brody and Brian continue laughing as they straighten their clothes.

"You guys look like you've been fighting," Brody declares.

"Or something," mutters Brian. Allison is the only one who catches this aside and she blushes.

* * *

A few days later, Bender and Allison are walking up Deerfield St. as they always do after finishing at the library.

"You know, Al," Bender says, "You've never shown me your art."

"Would you like to see some of my sketches? I've got one of you."

"You do? How did you manage that?"

"It's from one of those pictures Claire took. She gave me copies," Allison explains.

"I'd like to see that," Bender says. There is an unreadable expression on his face.

Both of her parents' cars are gone when they arrive. Allison lets herself in and leads the way to her bedroom. She threads the maze of junk to clear some clothes off her bed, to make room for them to sit.

"Sorry it's a wreck in here," she says.

"You're not a neat freak. I like that."

Allison turns on the college radio station, then nervously beckons Bender to the window. This is where she has her easel set up. Bender comes to her side and looks. It is a large pastel drawing of his face, wearing one of his lopsided grins with a soft look in his eyes.

"This is good, Allison. You're really good." He looks some more. "That's the way you see me?"

"Yes."

"I wish I could draw. I wish I could show you the way I see you." He looks intently at her, studying her face. Their eyes lock. "You're beautiful."

When their lips meet, it's like nothing before. It's like a dark river of sensation and emotion, swift, deep. It engulfs her and she is carried away. The earth seems to move. No, it is Bender pulling her with him onto the bed. Their kiss goes on, more and more passionate, and then it is overwhelming. When she pulls away, breath fast, Bender breathes in her ear, nuzzles in her hair, kisses her neck but she says, "No, no, stop."

Bender looks into her eyes and says, "Too much?"

She nods and burrows into his chest, holding onto him. He strokes her hair and they quietly lie together. His hand rests on her waist, warm and comforting. She wants to lie like this forever.

Eventually she stirs. Bender strokes her side, pulls her into a tight embrace and then lets go, sitting up. She sits up as well.

His voice is low and husky when he says, "I guess I better go, before your folks get home." He tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. "See you tomorrow?"

She nods. She leads him to the front door by the hand. At the door, she stops and says, "Bender, I..." Looking into his eyes she is lost again.

"Me too, Al. Me too." He gives her a soft kiss and walks out into the warm evening.


End file.
